I began reporting on this story asking therapists specializing in teen family dynamics one very specific question: What shows would you not let your teen watch? As with most things in the teenage wasteland, the answers were not as straightforward as I’d hoped. It gets slippery since we can’t control what our teenagers watch. Sure, you can set limits on devices, but there’s still YouTube and TikTok. And what about when your teen goes over to a friend’s home, where there are different (or fewer) guardrails? Long story short, encouraging a healthy independence and keeping your kid’s brain safe are often at odds.
While I was expecting an ironclad list of shows on a forbidden list, I, a mom of a teenager, came away with a more nuanced and elastic set of guidelines. But fear not, I know what you came for: I have also included a list of shows targeted to adults but depicting teens in crisis—shows you may want to keep your teen from watching.